Light and fresh I like to take fresh, seasonal, as much local product as I can, whether it's produce, fish, meat, and use a Mediterranean style and go kind of light. Not very rich, not heavy, more like colorful oils as my garnishes. Let the food speak for itself, basically.

For example, we have this dish we're going to put on the menu -- it's a stuffed quail. The stuffing is butternut squash with tons of herbs. It really enhances the bird itself. So my cuisine is trying to meld flavors that go together in a light, cohesive way in a Mediterranean style.

Found by food

I started eating healthy in college. For eight years I didn't eat any red meat, and for four of those eight years I was a vegetarian. When I first became a vegetarian I really got into food. It was a conscious thing about what am I putting in my body. I wanted to become a nutritionist. So I looked into that and I realized that that was a bad idea because my grades were really bad.

I drove cross-country to Colorado State because they had a sports nutrition program and I showed him (the guy) my transcript and he like laughed at me. He's like, "Your grades, they're terrible." So I was like, "OK, I can't do the math. I can't do the science. What can I do in cuisine?"

When I was like 8 years old, 9 years old, my mom and my sister said, "You should become a chef, " because I used to play with food a lot as a kid. Pretending to cook it underneath the couch, that kind of stuff. I'd set a fake timer.

So it was always in me. Food finds you. If you were meant to do it, it happens. It's natural. It feels good.

Giving up vegetarianism It was easy. I was drunk, and my friends were eating General Tso's chicken and I was eating tofu. When they make it with too much dry shitakes I can't eat it, so I took one bite and I threw it in the garbage and I started eating theirs. And that was it. I never looked back.

Educational dishes I want a reader to look at my menu and be like "Hmm, that's interesting. I've never had that before." I want my cooks to be able to tell me they've never seen that before, never used that before. That's my goal every day, every menu, to educate my cooks, my wait staff and my diners. And not freak them out.